In order to make frac tanks completely portable, often they are mounted on trailers and many designs of this type are available. However these only contain very limited mounts so that a large number of such trailers would be necessary in many instances.
Other tanks having a capacity between 2000 and 20,000 cubic meters are fabricated on site from panels, typically of metal sheet, with a covering liner. However as the requirement for the water is only temporary, it is necessary for the construction to be of a type which can be readily erected and quickly dismantled and removed to a new location.
Designs have previously been provided of this type for example that sold under the trade mark “C-Ring” containment system by Westeel of Winnipeg Manitoba Canada. This arrangement provides a design formed by corrugated steel panels connected at overlapping ends to form a circular container. This may have a height defined by a single row so that the container is of very large diameter or may be formed by a series of rings of panels stacked one on top of the next to form a height which can be as much as 36 feet. The selection of design can depend on the location and terrain available for the tank. The arrangement of Westeel provides hardware for maintaining stability of the construction when full and when empty as well as liner mounting systems and these components are well known to the person skilled in this art and are not the subject of this invention.
Up to now the panels are merely bolted together at the overlapping ends using techniques used for decades in the grain bin industry.
However the requirement for rapid deployment of the temporary tank requires attention to an alternative for the high labor bolting system.